Cultural Transformations: Development Initiatives and Social Movements
The bi-annual conference of the Inter Asia Cultural Studies Society (IACSS), which is engaged in exploring new ways to re-imagine the idea of Asia in the new century. Inter-disciplinary in nature, the conference will establish a dialogue between academics, practitioners, social and cultural activists from inside and outside the region to problematise the idea of Asia. The conference is being hosted by BRAC University and is organized by the Department of English and Humanities and BRAC Development Institute.

South Asia in Inter-Asia
This year’s conference will bring in South Asia more centrally within IACSS and also makes efforts to draw in scholars from West Asia into the fold of IACSS. Hosted in Bangladesh, this conference will be able to shed light on groundbreaking innovations in the development arena, such as in education, livelihoods, health, etc.

New cultural forms and trends such as music, dance, film and popular literature, will bring out the mutual influences between cultural practice and economic and social development.

Envisioning a new picture of Asia – an other Asia – this conference invites paper and panel proposals on issues such as

Social movements and struggles

Development initiatives and cultural change

Asian feminisms and social change

The post-colonial, the national and the pan-Asian in the formation of new cultural identities

Changes and developments in popular cultural practices, including music, dance, film and popular literature

Other topics in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies are also welcome

Panels should comprise of 3-5 papers. Proposals for papers and panels will be submitted by the 31st of May 2011. Acceptance of panels will be announced by June 20 2011.

Proposals for papers and panels should include:

abstracts of papers (maximum 300 words)

panels proposals should include a session abstract, plus abstracts of individual papers